The Writers of Wales Database

JAMES, BILL

Bill James is a former journalist who worked for the Western Mail and South WalesEcho, The Daily Mirror and the Sunday Times. He is the author of twenty-four crime novels in the Harpur and Iles series, which are published all over the world, as well as a critical work on Anthony Powell. Protection (Penguin Books, 1989), the fourth in the series, was televised by BBC 1 as Harpur & Iles, starring Hywel Bennett. Hollywood is currently negotiating for Halo Parade, number three.

In 2006 he was shortlisted for the Crime Writers Association prestigious Duncan Lawrie Dagger award for the year's best crime novel with Wolves of Memory (Constable, 2005).

James lives in his native South Wales and also writes under the name David Craig, most recently a series set around Cardiff docks, where he grew up. The Warner Brothers film, 'The Squeeze', with Stacy Keach, Edward Fox and Carol White was adapted from the David Craig novel, Whose Little Girl Are You? (Macmillan, 1974). He is married with four children and a part-time tutor in creative writing at the University of Wales, Cardiff.

Reviews:

"…Probably the most extraordinary stylistic project ever seen in British crime writing…"
John Lennard

"…Most other British police writers are foam rubber truncheons to James' iron riot baton…"
Time Out

"...Dazzles...a modern morality play of epic scope..."
Publishers Weekly


Selected Publications:

Harpur and Iles Series:
You’d Better Believe It (St. Martin’s Press, 1985)
The Lolita Man (Constable, 1986)
Halo Parade (Constable, 1987)
Protection (Penguin Books, 1989)
Take (Macmillan, 1990)
Come Clean (Penguin Books, 1991)
Astride a Grave (Macmillan, 1991)
Club (Macmillan, 1991)
Gospel (Macmillan, 1992)
Roses, Roses (Macmillan, 1993)
In Good Hands (Macmillan, 1994)
The Detective is Dead (Macmillan, 1995)
Top Banana (Macmillan, 1996)
Panicking Ralph (Macmillan, 1997)
Lovely Mover (Macmillan, 1998) 
Halo Parade (W. W. Norton & Co. Ltd, 1998)
Eton Crop (Macmillan, 1999)
Kill Me (Macmillan, 2000)
Pay Days (Constable and Robinson, 2001)
Naked at the Window (W. W. Norton & Co. Ltd, 2002)
The Girl with the Long Back (Constable and Robinson, 2003)
Easy Streets (Constable and Robinson, 2004)
Wolves of Memory (Constable and Robinson, 2005)
Girls (Constable, 2006)
Pix (Constable and Robinson, 2007)
In the Absence of Iles (Constable Crime, 2008)
Hotbed (Constable, 2009)
I am Gold (Constable Crime, 2010)

Bloodlines Series:
A Man’s Enemies (The Do-Not Press, 2003)

Other titles:
Forget It (Severn House Publishing, 1995)
The King’s Friends (Severn House, 1995)
The Last Enemy (Severn House, 1997)
Split (The Do-Not Press, 2001)
The Middleman (The Do-Not Press, 2002)
Double Jeopardy (Severn House, 2002)
Between Lives (Severn House, 2004)
Making Stuff Up (Severn House, 2006)
The Sixth Man, and Other Stories (Severn House, 2006)
Letters from Carthage (Severn House, 2006)
Off-Street Parking (Severn House, 2008)
World War II Will Not Take Place (Severn House, 2011)
Vacuum (Creme de la Crime, 2011)

As David Craig:
Whose Little Girl Are You? (Macmillan, 1974)
The Tattooed Detective (Constable and Robinson, 1998)
Torch (Constable and Robinson, 1999)
Bay City Constable and Robinson, 2000)
Hear Me Talking To You (Severn House, 2005)
Tip Top (Severn House, 2005)
Full of Money (Severn House, 2009)